Tag Archives: Charcuterie

Its close to Christmas and I was still looking for another Christmas present for @WineGuyTO when I stumbled across the Carnivore Club. Perfect! He loves meat and it would be a gift that he would not be expecting.

So what is this club? A subscription based curated charcuterie box from around the world, each month being a different theme. The Club has been around for about a year and is Canadian based, which I liked because there was no exchange rates or customs issues to go through. Subscriptions are on a month-by-month basis or full year (the latter would be approximately $600). Each box contains 4-6 items of meat and a fold-out that includes explanations of the products, a bio of the producer and a VQA recommendation.

The day our box arrived was the same day the Club appeared on CBC’s Dragon’s Den. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil the result! This month the theme was Spanish and we received two sausages and two hams.

Overall we are very pleased with our first box and are looking forward to our second.

Every once in a while Groupon delivers. A while ago, there was a a deal, $15 would get you $30 at Jamie Kennedy‘s Gilead Café and Bistro. Other than the reviews I had already read/heard, my cousin is a chef who worked with Jamie Kennedy, and having eaten his food, I knew this would be good! Like most of my group coupon redemptions, I left it to the second last day before it expired. Dinner is served from 5:30 on and we were lucky to get a reservation as we were told the were fully booked from 7:30 on. There is also a lunch menu, which appeared to be much of the same as on the dinner menu.

The Gilead is a tapas menu. I started with Kir Royale (can’t resist) and @Heywooddc had Tollgate Red to drink. On the advice of @Foodie411 and @duckiewong, we started with the red fife bread. Soo good! Was not so enamoured of the salted diced vegetables because it was an overwhelming salty taste.

We also shared the charcuterie plate, where we chose the chicken liver pâté, the chicken terrine and the pancetta. I loved the pâté! It was so sweet due to sherry being added, I was addicted. The terrine had a great texture as well. We were so-so on the pancetta, not much flavour. It was served with two mustards: a grainy and a smooth. Both accented the charcuterie perfectly. To munch on, we also had the frites with two sauces. They were ok, nothing spectacular.

Next up as mains were the fried chicken and the scallops with bacon. I had also gotten a glass of my favourite 30 Bench Riesling. So happy to see that the entire wine list was VQA. More restaurants need to do this. I can see how these are sharing plates as each came with two pieces. The fried chicken skin was super crispy and flavourful. I loved that the pieces were boneless. The scallops were nicely seared and the pancetta were thick pieces in a nice tomato sauce.

By this time we were getting full, so we skipped the cheese plate (reluctantly) and decided to share a dessert. We went with the whiskey tarte tatin. It was ok, a little bland, but the caramel was nice.

We will definitely return here! It was a little expensive though, as when sharing, the plates can add up. I cannot wait to try any of his other places.